


Distorted Shadows

by roxasthatsastick



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Study, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-05 23:59:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15182243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roxasthatsastick/pseuds/roxasthatsastick
Summary: Sora fell deep into the darkness of the Realm of Dreams. So deep that he found something else. Dreams, what are they but thoughts reflected?





	Distorted Shadows

**9/2**

**Mementos - Afternoon**

 

 

Futaba stared out the window of the Mona-Mobile. "Y'know, Mementos is a lot more boring than I expected." It's true that its super creepy with the vein-like rail things, and that shimmer to the shadows that made it seem as if something was there... but also, it was the exact same tunnel, over and over again. Nothing ever really changed except the creepiness level went up every few floors. There were also the shadows, but she couldn't count those. Futaba guessed they were super over leveled for this area or something, 'cause they all died super fast, three hits and, boom! Distraction over.

Ryuji groaned. "Oi, don't say that! Now any second that huge ass shadows gonna come and kill us!"

"Sorry Skull, but we have _at least_ ten minutes before that guy shows up. We literally just got to this floor." She grinned. "Maybe we'll find something else though, like mmm, maybe some treasure? There's some interesting readings a couple corridors away!"

Yusuke hummed. "I wonder..."

"What?"

"Do you think that believing the Reaper will appear soon will make it emerge faster? This is a cognitive world, perhaps--"

Ann cut him off. "Nuh uh, no way, we are _not_ continuing that train of thought! Sorry, but I'd rather not get hurt that badly today."

Makoto sighed. "A- anyways, getting off that subject. You said there was treasure?"

"Yeah," Futaba checked over her scans, and nodded. "Just take that next right and it should be pretty close."

"Alright, thank you." She took the turn smoothly, running over a few tracks in the process.

Morgana grumbled a bit as they turned. "Can't you avoid those a bit better, they really do hu--"

Whatever he was saying was lost as Makoto slammed on the brakes. Futaba clutched onto the seat in front of her for dear life, until the shaking stopped. "What the heck, Queen! What happened to safety first!?"

Even from the back seat, ears ringing, Futaba could hear Makoto swallow whatever she was about to say. "There. There's someone in the tunnel. Two someones? Um."

Everyone sat forward (as much as could at least) at that. Futaba blinked at what she saw. There definitely was at least one person in the tunnel? Maybe two. It depended a bit on whether on not that second figure was a ghost or not. There was a certain transparency to the other guy which gave a certain inhuman light to the whole thing.

That wasn't even getting into what they were wearing.

"...Are they shadows?" Good 'ol Ryuji, voicing every thought no one wanted to think.

Fortunately in this case... "Nope." Futaba clicked through a few more screens of Necronomicon, just to double check. "I mean, the reading are super weird, but they aren't shadows? I dunno what, but not shadows at least. More importantly, what are they wearing, its some weird half step between street fashion and full JRPG."

It was the weirdest outfits she'd ever seen on a real person outside cosplay and their group. She'd guessed they were other thieves for a second even, except neither of them had a mask.

The unconscious one looked a bit younger than her, and had a real red and black theme going with his bright red poofy pants and grey hoodie. That was ignoring, of course, his gigantic yellow shoes. Those things were larger than his head! Why. And his hair; it was full anime. There were so many spikes, it didn't even bother to look fake.

The other guy could almost pass for normal street fashion, but it was undercut by a few things. The blond extra spiky hair, the way he was trying to shake the other guy awake... the fact he was literally a ghost. Honestly, the transparent thing really made it hard to find it even vaguely realistic.

Futaba eyed the guy's eye-color again, just in case. It remained stubbornly blue. Very blue. "Hey Morgana, maybe he's a relative? Blue eyes, weird Metaverse shenanigans?"

The blond finally stopped his shoving of the other kid to give a glare. " _He_ is right here you know."

"Yeah, and why are you here? Seriously, no one comes here, its sucks." Ryuji gave him a glare back. "Or are you here for doing crime?!"

The ghost's expression went blank. "Uh. Let's leave it at, its complicated, and I don't want to be here either."

Akira walked up to them and glanced at them from top to bottom. Futaba had no clue what he thought about the situation, she couldn't figure out most people, let alone Akira's inscrutable masks. They passed his test, and he gave a nod. "What did happen then?"

The guy sighed, chewing his lip a bit. After a moment, he nodded back, if a bit more guarded about it. "Well, long story short, somebody wanted _this_ idiot," he gave a soft punch to the brunet, "to 'lose himself in the darkness of his heart'. Something something 'following your heart is a bad idea', and here we are, in literally the deepest pit of darkness we could end up in." A shadow passed over his face, but Futaba missed it, too distracted with dissecting the rest of that bomb.

"What?!" Morgana, apparently poofing back to cat form out of sight, padded over. "Someone is throwing people in here?"

"No! No its uh," blondie stifled a groan. "It's a lot more complicated than that. For reference, where exactly is here?"

Everyone gave a glance. This guy obviously knew something, but not about the Metaverse specifically which made it, surprise surprise, even more complicated. Futaba was starting to regret being bored earlier, or at least making a big deal about it. Excitement was more frustrating than she had imagined five minutes ago.

Makoto stepped forward, back tense. "It's called the Metaverse, its a world where cognitions are made real. Cognitions are, thoughts, memories--"

"Dreams." The blond finished. "It... makes sense. Probably. It's probably not quite the same world, but we came from the Realm of Sleep. Which is different, it was harder for, well, it wasn't the same, that's for sure."

Well, half of that was probably a lie or avoiding something, but the rest was interesting. "That's why your readings are off. You're not any of the things I scan for!"

"Don't call me a thing!" A pause. "Or him!"

"Well, you're not a shadow, or a persona-user, and not a cognition either. You're, dun dun dun, a person! With none of that." Futaba said.

"So what's this Realm of Sleep or whatever? Some unconscious mind thing?" Ryuji asked.

He gave a long look at the brunet beside him, and visibly, whatever was holding him back broke, or fractured a little. "Its where hearts sleep. All hearts."

Akira blinked. "Hearts?"

The blond glared at him. "Hearts. That’s the word, I didn’t name it. So who are you guys? I hope you're not a uh," he tapped a finger to his palm, "a cult! That's the word. That's a lot of masks you're wearing you know. Might be hiding something."

"We're not a damn cult! We--"

Makoto pushed him to the side. "Need to get out of here. Can't you hear the Shadows riling up?"

Everyone had a single moment of silence to process this. The silence, as it happened, made it a lot easier to hear to hear the rattling of chains and moans.

"Oh shit!"

Morgana transformed. "Everyone! Get in quick!"

The transparent blond stood up straight with a jolt. "I can't carry Sora! I--"

"Do not worry. We shall help." Yusuke said calmly, getting into the Mona-Mobile. Behind him, Ryuji and Akira lifted up the newly named Sora and started sprinting to the car.

Soon everyone was in, Sora lying down in the back with Futaba, and they were _out of there_. Makoto could drive pretty safely, or, like right now, could drive like a demon. Considering that they were being chased by the next worst thing, Futaba didn't care much.

 

* * *

 

Twelve darknesses had assembled, and were ready to create the thirteenth. Unfortunately, as Master Xehanort prepared to strike, the last vessel had, with no indication as to why, disappeared.

All of the Xehanorts turned to look at the obvious culprits, the boy's would-be rescuers. Riku had a look of shock on his face, and the King was obviously just as confused.

Quietly, but not so quiet that everyone didn't hear, Xigbar whispered, "Who-oops."

 

* * *

 

Things hadn't gotten any easier, even after getting away from the Reaper. They had in fact, gotten away fine. No injuries, no new traumas. However, the blond had disappeared as soon as they went outside. None of them had even gotten a name, or proper explanation, but off he went.

Looking back, they probably should have expected that, given that he was literally transparent and obviously not human, whatever was going on there. Ghost? Cognition? Whatever Morgana is? Who knows.

Bigger problem: "Sora" was still unconscious, even after they got out of Mementos. You know, into the *center of Shibuya Station*. Akira made some excuse about jet lag that *for some reason* everyone accepted, no questions asked. For someone who was hated by the whole school, Akira had crazy charisma.

Third thing, Sora’s clothes changed too, and man, it didn’t get any better. If his outfit was side-eying RPGs before, now he’d jumped straight in. Cloth armor things on shoulders? Check. Even spikier hair? Yup. More belts than Futaba had ever seen on a single person? Oh man. There were, what, over a dozen belts? A third of which were on the shoes? This guy was committed. Committed to what, she didn’t want to know. Mostly.

Finally, and Futaba had to just file this under Metaverse Shenanigans, Sora was older now. Before he looked younger than her by at least a year, maybe more, and now? Same age. Had he just been in a coma the whole time and his mental age wasn’t the same? Time travel? Who even knows with the Metaverse.

At any rate, they eventually got back to LeBlanc with no major problem, comatose boy in tow.

Everyone stared at Sora, dead asleep on the couch in the attic.

Ryuji scratched him head. "So, what do we do?"

"Well, he's not waking up." Ann said.

"Yeah, but what next? Can we even get a palace out of this guy? All we have is a first name!"

"If that. It could be a nickname." Yusuke replied.

"Why are we trying to solve this using the Metaverse?" Makoto sighed. "Shouldn't we, I don't know, bring him to a doctor?"

"With what documents? Plus, if this _isn't_ a Metaverse problem, I'll eat one of Inari's canvases. Like, he popped up in the middle of Mementos? Unconscious with weird ghosts following him? He's def suspicious." Futaba rolled her eyes. "Plus, I can't find any records of this guy. I mean, its been ten minutes, and I've only been checking missing person cases, but honestly? Look at this guy."

They looked. "Sora" remained as out of place as ever.

"I... think I can see what you mean. You should probably keep looking for information though." Makoto said.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Ryuji clicked through his phone, over to the side. “But seriously though, can we even get a palace outta this guy?”

Ann crossed her arms and gave the phone a look. “Well, maybe if we just add ‘at LeBlanc’s attic’ on the end it’ll work? That is basically what we did for Futaba-chan.”

Ryuji tapped on his phone once or twice and then held it up. “So what, Sora at LeBlanc--” ‘ _Coordinates accepted.’_ “Huh.”

A pause. Ryuji sighed and sat back. “Every time I think this thing can’t get weirder…”  
  
“I’d complain about you nitpicking so much, but that one was a stretch. Does he just not have a last name?” Morgana poked the spiky teen with one paw. “I think the names are more about how you see yourself but I haven’t met anyone without a last name before…”

“Shouldn’t you know, cat? _You_ don’t have a last name.” Ryuji retorted.  
  
“I’m not a cat!!” Morgana trailed off. “And… I might have a last name… I just… don’t remember it.”

Akira reached over and gave Morgana a soft pat. “We’ll find out.”  
  
Morgana gave him a look and nodded. Then turned away. “But first, this guy. We know he has a palace now, at least.”  
  
“But what’s his distortion? I mean, obviously he’s out from whatever it is.” Futaba clicked through a couple more pages on her laptop and sat forward to stare at Sora.  
  
“Well, one could say he’s trapped in his mind. A prison perhaps?” Yusuke asked.

_‘No matches found.'_

“A jail? A maze?” Ryuji threw out.

 _‘No matches found.’_ _  
_

Makoto frowned. “Isn’t a maze a little low scale? And honestly, we don’t know anything about him, how can we guess the distortion?”

Ann leaned against the table and sighed. “But it isn’t like he’s going to wake up and tell us. Leader, any ideas?”  
  
Akira sat, thinking pose a ready. And after a moment opened his eyes. “A labyrinth.”  
  
_‘Match found. Beginning navigation.’_

**Author's Note:**

> So, I almost wrote a bunch of other Persona fanfiction, but then I realized I'd have to break my streak of writing weird KH fic, so wrote this
> 
> also I specifically wrote this after futaba joined the party so I could make 1000 jokes about these RPG outfits


End file.
